Some Particular Problems in the Application of the 100-Item Lexicostatistic Test List

0. It seems to be generally agreed that the translation of this or of any other list of isolated words or glosses into another language is almost sure to present some problems, the difficulty of whose solution should be neither underestimated nor exaggerated. And since the nature and number of such problems differ from one target language to another, the exposition of those that are encountered in any particular case may have a more general interest. On the other hand, comparison of basic vocabulary from several Arawakan languages reveals a disconcerting number of partly cognate equivalents; under which term I shall include not only pairs of compounds containing both cognate and noncognate members, but also any compound or one-time compound and such of its simple equivalents as are cognate with one member -cf., meaning tail: Bar6 ihibi, Lokono ihi and Guinao -ibi. Clearly, in such cases, imperfect understanding of the morphology, uncertainty as to a particular morpheme's relevance to the comparison, or even ignorance of a word's history may lead to distorting the count of 'glottochronologic sames.'